Electric vehicles (EV) adoption is growing. In fact, in the state of California, all new cars, trucks, and SUVs will eventually be required to run on electricity or hydrogen. Infrastructure to support EV growth and adoption is critical. It creates opportunities for businesses to navigate the adoption of EVs in their operations smoother and possibly create a competitive advantage if the right information, processes, and tools are in place.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can strategize your transformation to EV.

The increase of Electric Vehicles

The electrification of commercial midweight and heavyweight vehicles — UPS step vans, boxy linen trucks, port haulers, garbage trucks and tractor-trailers — is gaining momentum. Nearly every truck maker is getting in on the action. Regulators and advocates are seizing on them as an effective lever against climate change. In fact, electric vehicles made up 7.2% of global car sales in the first half of 2021, up from 4.3% in 2020 and 2.6% in 2019, according to data from research provider Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Just last year, President Biden set a target to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles, introducing a $7.5 billion plan to build a network of 500,000 chargers to accommodate them. Then you have California, who will require all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to run on electricity or hydrogen by 2035 in an ambitious move away from gasoline-powered vehicles and the pollution they emit. If the policy works as hoped, California will cut out emissions from vehicles in half by 2040. Other states are expected to follow suit, further accelerating the production of zero-emissions vehicles.

These requirements will come in phases starting in 2026, and will take 13 years to become fully effective, but the challenges to meeting them will be great. The California Energy Commission expects EV to add only a small amount of power use in the next 10 years,  estimating that 3.7 million light-duty EV will be in use in the state in 2030, accounting for only about 2.6% of electricity use during peak hours.

David Reichmuth, a Senior Engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, believes EV charging can be timed to off-peak hours, especially during the day when wind and solar power are more available. “Utilities will be able to send messages to cars to start or stop charging depending on electricity demand,” he said.

As of now, 17 other states have adopted California’s greenhouse gas emissions requirements, most on the coasts. In total they account for about 40% of all U.S. new vehicle sales. The state of Washington has already started the process to follow the EV sales requirements, and others are expected to. It will take more time for other states to go through the process, and many don’t have the electric vehicle demand or charging infrastructure that California does.

PHOTO: ELECTRIFY AMERICA

The challenges from the growth of EV

So who is affected by the changes that EVs are creating? If you’re a trucking company, field service, utility, telecom, food delivery fleet, or a business that runs and operates class 1-8 vehicles, odds are you are going to need to make the switch to EV to help create a better environment.

The most common challenges from EV are:

• California electrification legislation
• Infrastructure challenges
• EV is 6’ longer and heavier than gas powered vehicles
• Brown outs
• Limited charging stations

Another challenge the growth of EV presents is high-voltage interconnections. Grid connections will need to deliver huge amounts of power at one place, at one time.

The National Grid recently released a study about the future power needs on highways, estimating that by 2030, half of fuel stops would top 5MW peak demand, triggering upgrades that could take 4-8 years to build and cost tens of millions of dollars.

A few of the big charging challenges that will need to be addressed include:

• Gas stations not including EV charging and future and grid connections are usually reserved for factories and stadiums
• Utilities aren’t set up to be proactive
• Grid infrastructures will have to upgrade multiple times over short time periods
• What’s considered fast-charging for cars could be a trickle for semi-trucks

Executives need to be prepared to advance their own green agenda to align with government mandates and consumer pressure. Companies that invest in technology solutions that help them uncover key information about their fleet usage and about available power sources will be better prepared and gain a competitive advantage. By working in conjunction with your technology provider, your journey to electrification is achievable.

The opportunities for those adopting EV

You can get ahead of the curve with a trusted partner on your transformation to EV. With a SaaS fleet intelligence platform and data technology strategy, companies can not only gain insights around their fleet, but also EV infrastructures, and charging stations.

Powerfleet is here to help customers who plan to make the transition to EV. Our solutions help:

• Gain visibility into fleets location and status
• Manage utilization and maintenance
• Improve fuel or power management and sustainability initiatives
• Increase operational efficiency and profitability
• Connect all resources under one single pane of glass
• Ingest livestream data and applies AI and ML to provide multi-dimensional KPIs to reduce costs
• Increase visibility to spot inefficiencies before they lead to costly mistakes
• Convert numbers and statistics to powerful decisions
• Capture key data to extend battery life and improve sustainability within fleets

We recently launched our fleet intelligence platform, Powerfleet Unity, that unites people, assets, and IoT data together to transform the way you do business. The Powerfleet Unity platform enables rapid and deep integration with IoT devices and third-party business systems to a highly scalable data pipeline that powers artificial intelligence-driven insights to help companies save lives, time, and money. Powerfleet has brought in data from our own devices to move forward with other API integrations to provide the best insights to our customers. By combining information from vehicles and EV infrastructure with data from other sources such as weather, traffic, and road conditions, we help empower our customers to be more efficient and cut waste and costs. Powerfleet Unity was designed to support organizations’ transition to EV with hundreds of EV data elements to optimize fleet planning, battery range, EV safety, and maintenance.

The Bottom Line

Although there are obvious tactical challenges for companies considering electric vehicles, there are opportunities with the right partner by your side.

If you’re interested in learning how Powerfleet can assist you on your journey to EV, contact us to schedule a conversation today.

 

Resources Used:

• Tom Randall on Twitter: “Tesla is about to start selling its electric semi, and it’s time to start talking about the biggest challenge for the industry: high-voltage grid interconnections. It’s a big deal that could stall electrification of all vehicles if things don’t change 🧵 https://t.co/ZPYZ6PiEyc” / Twitter
• Tesla’s Electric Semis Are Coming, and Trucks Stops Aren’t Ready – Bloomberg

Managing and pivoting during uncertain times is no stranger to business leaders. Leaders have been challenged with navigating through an unprecedented pandemic for more than two years now, but the year ahead looks a little bit different. Headlines are focused on global unrest, projected recessions, soaring inflation, volatile fuel costs, supply chain issues, and more. Where should business leaders focus their efforts for 2023 with all of these issues looming?

It’s important to recognize that instability can lead to immense opportunity for businesses. History has shown this happens time and time again. So, how can businesses prepare to come out of 2023 on top? It’s all about focusing on the right places. According to Forbes, the three main areas companies should invest in include those that maximize revenue growth, profitability, and resilience. But, what does that look like in practice?

Let’s take a look at these key considerations to best plan for 2023.

Make The Right Investments

To maximize revenue growth, profitability, and resilience, companies that selectively reduce costs and invest in future growth significantly outperform those that ubiquitously cut costs.

Professor Pankaj Ghemawat, in his 2009 MIT Sloan Management Review article, “The risk of not investing in a Recession”, cautions that those firms who do not invest during a recession might incur far-reaching disadvantages that might eventually prove insurmountable.

Investment in digital transformation is the key to cost reduction during downturns. Selecting the right technology with the right technology partner can help usher in more visibility, agility, and efficiency. Companies that leverage analytics to get a better understanding of business operations will be best positioned to further examine areas for improvement and uncover long-lasting competitive advantages. 

During the 2007-2009 Recession, companies that prioritized early cost restructuring, starting with implementing emerging digital technologies, accelerated profitability during and after the recession. Bain published an article in 2019, encouraging companies to anticipate future downturns by adopting digital technologies. Its authors stated, “For companies anticipating the next recession, digital technologies will provide new ways to move faster and simplify their businesses with both step-change and continuous improvements.” 

Transform Operations from Manual to Automated 

Past recessions have put a positive spotlight on the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data powered by cloud technology that helps drive adoption of automation which ultimately sets up more efficient operations. Real-time IoT data provides the ability to assess situations faster and eliminate manual and oftentimes labor intensive practices. 

For example, a common scenario for Powerfleet customers is the need for visibility into the location and status of their mobile assets. They may conduct physical asset checks by employees that are time-consuming and prone to human error in the record keeping. Those valuable labor hours could have been better utilized elsewhere. By investing in a real-time visibility solution, day-to-day processes and tracking capabilities improved.

Technology with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are leading areas that can also help reduce costs, optimize expenses and give your company agility and adaptability to a changing economic environment. AI can remove manual operations to reduce human error and increase efficiency.

Without advanced modular solutions, data science, and AI-driven insights, companies will be forced to make decisions blind, which could have drastic negative operational and financial impacts. Those poorly informed decisions, in times of uncertainty, could be what makes or breaks those in 2023. 

Looking Ahead – 2023 and Beyond 

Investment in IoT can transform your business and provide near-term payback and longer-term return on investment to help your company succeed even in down-turn markets. It is crucial that the implementation and rollout of IoT technology solutions is successful to reap the benefits and promise of IoT. That’s why working with a partner with the experience and teams in place to act as an advisor to help with the implementation process should be part of the section process.

For companies that have already invested in IoT technology for digital transformation of their operations, workforce safety and management, and compliance, they should look to their providers for additional advancements that may be available. Areas where companies can examine to get more out of existing systems are in sensor data, third-party data integrations, microservices, and trend analytic or data science reporting. 

Powerfleet is a global leader of IoT software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions that optimize the performance of mobile assets and resources to unify business operations. We help drive digital transformation through our customers’ and partners’ ecosystems to help save lives, time, and money. We recently launched our new fleet intelligence platform, Powerfleet Unity, that unites people, assets, and data together to transform the way you do business. Powerfleet Unity’s extensive integration library of data sensory device types coupled with Powerfleet’s modular, business performance improvement solutions allow customers to receive rapid speed to value and deliver dramatic positive change to their business. Powerfleet Unity will also offer customers data extensibility by exposing the platform using extensible microservices and open APIs to make integrating to external systems and leveraging their own data quick and easy.

The Bottom Line

Economic downturns are the most challenging phases for any organization. It’s during these times that it is vital for companies to invest in technologies that will help data informed decisions. Companies must leverage the uncertainty of the market to push forward with changes. They must invest in proven technologies to accommodate for the copious changes on the way and create space for long-lasting growth. IoT and telematics solutions can help increase efficiency through better fuel economy and asset utilization as well as improve safety and security. By enhancing your safety, productivity, cutting costs, and improving customer service, implementing IoT technology will better position your company to not only survive a downturn but thrive.

Contact us today to discuss your business objectives so we can help your organization thrive in the year ahead. Our tenured and talented team can help you and those at the heart of your organization focus on what matters most as you prepare for 2023. 

 

Resources:

• What Are The Keys To 2023 Planning In The Midst Of Uncertainty? Discipline And Precision (forbes.com)
• Investment During Economic Downturn: A Key to Startup Success – Techment
• Technology In Times Of Economic Downturn: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters (forbes.com)
• What Your Company Needs To Know Before Investing In IoT (forbes.com)
• How To Use Technology To Gain A Sustainable Competitive Advantage (forbes.com)
• Beyond the Downturn: Recession Strategies to Take the Lead | Bain & Company

The industry has been enduring a challenging operating environment the last few years. Accidents and fatalities are the most considerable existential risk to these companies, given the rise in nuclear verdicts.

Let’s take a look at traffic fatality trends and how you can protect your drivers and business.

Traffic Fatalities Are on the Rise: Here’s How to Keep Your Drivers Safe Click To Tweet

Traffic Fatalities on the Rise

An estimated 20,160 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the first half of 2021, according to the NHTSA’s latest data, up 18.4% over 2020. While the new report doesn’t account for truck-involved crashes, earlier estimates from the organization show that fatalities involving large trucks were down in 2020 despite an overall increase in traffic deaths.

The mountain west had the most significant increase in fatalities. Source: CCJ Digital

Nevertheless, riskier driving behaviors create an environment that puts truckers companies with commercial fleets at risk. According to the ATRI, the average size of nuclear verdicts against trucking companies skyrocketed nearly 1,000%, from $2.3 million to $22.3 million. And even smaller verdicts have become larger and more frequent.

Start by Hiring Safe Drivers

The best way to keep your fleet safe is to hire safe drivers and ensure they comply with rules and regulations. For example, a driver that starts with a poor record, regularly violates HOS rules, and gets into an accident could lead to a nuclear lawsuit. Meanwhile, a compliant driver with a clean record that gets into an accident is far easier to defend in court.

Start by creating standardized Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs) scores for each applicant and rule out poor performers. In addition, Drive-a-Check (DAC) reports show comments from past employers, while Pre-Employment Screening Programs (PSPs) make it easy to review roadside inspection and FMCSA crash data impacting applicants.

In addition to these minimum standards and best practices, fleets should have their own company-specific standards for years of experience, crash history, and vehicle experience. You may want to work with your insurance provider to define these standards since risky new hires could affect coverage or insurance rates.

Develop Effective Training Programs

Driver training is critical to road safety. Earlier this year, the FMCSA announced new baselines for entry-level truck driver training (ELDT). The new Commercial Drivers License (CDL) curriculum includes both theory and behind-the-wheel training on a range or public road. There are also new registration (TPR) and record-keeping requirements for training programs.

In addition to CDL certifications, companies should provide in-house training programs. These programs should review company-specific rules and regulations, as well as pair new and experienced drivers to verify understanding and answer any questions. In addition, consider ongoing training in specific sub-topics or problem areas.

At the same time, you should diligently document these training programs. That way, if there’s an accident, these records will prove that the company did everything in its power to ensure the driver was competent. If drivers require retraining, you should record the reason and have them sign off.

Identify Problems with Real-Time Data

Real-time information from telematics and dash cameras is quickly moving from nice-to-have to a must-have technology to keep drivers safe. In particular, telematics make it easy to spot unsafe driving behavior before it results in an accident. In addition, the data enables managers to have informed conversations with drivers and measure improvement over time.

Fleets can also use telematics and cameras to develop rewards programs for safe drivers. These programs can foster healthy competition between drivers and encourage safe driving throughout an organization. For instance, you might give away vacation time, gift certificates, or simply offer extra pay for safe drivers when they reach certain milestones.

Finally, telematics can help defend trucking companies if an accident occurs. For example, Powerfleet’s Vista dashcam provides driver- and road-facing cameras to exonerate drivers in the event of an accident and instantly alert them of unsafe conditions. The footage may also be helpful when developing training materials or when retraining drivers.

Benefits Beyond Traffic Safety

The benefits of telematics extend well beyond driver safety, enabling fleets to easily justify investment in new technologies. With a fast payback period and robust return on investment, telematics can improve fleet safety and other operational KPIs.

The other core advantages of telematics include:

• Improve Driver Efficiency: Powerfleet’s telematics can help avoid unnecessary driving, track engine working hours and idling, and help drivers better manage the way they drive to reduce losses and maximize profitability.
• Preventative Maintenance: Powerfleet’s vehicle telematics also constantly track working fleet engine hours, enable you to plan ahead for PM’s, avoid costly failures on the road, and extend asset lifespan.
• Streamlined Customer Service: Powerfleet’s software platform lets you obtain automated arrival and departure notifications from landmarks that you define, and receive reminders to start billing for detention.
• Ensure Compliance: Powerfleet’s Fleet Management solution records all driver activities to the minute, reducing errors, increasing drive time, and providing up-to-the-minute knowledge of available hours to assign to a job.
• Complete Visibility: Powerfleet’s tracking solutions provide complete visibility across your fleet, yards, and customer sites. You can do everything from track vehicle conditions to view the cargo status.
• Maximize Asset Utilization: Powerfleet makes it easy to measure asset utilization to right-size your fleet and ensure the highest possible return on assets. This is especially helpful to maximize revenue during trailer shortages
• Improve the Efficiency of Business Operations: Powerfleet creates the ability to review  arrival and departure times, travel time to jobs, and stop duration to know if jobs are being completed in a reasonable amount of time, if there are delays, why detours were taken, and if drivers are not being utilized when they have hours available.
• Eliminate Unauthorized Vehicle Use: With full visibility into assets, Powerfleet makes it easy to find equipment when it is critical.
• Integrated Asset Tracking Eliminate asset theft and address emergency work orders quicker and more efficiently.
• Fuel and battery management: Rank the efficiency of drivers and gain real-time alerts that offer positive live-coaching. Powerfleet also extends the range of battery life.

Powerfleet aggregates these metrics on a powerful cloud-based platform, enabling you to quickly access relevant KPIs, and make data-driven decisions.

The Bottom Line

Traffic fatalities were on the rise last year, creating a more dangerous environment for drivers. With the rise of nuclear and small verdicts, companies are more vulnerable than ever to these kinds of accidents. Fortunately, good hiring practices, effective training programs, and telematics can help avoid and mitigate problems.

If you’re interested in adding telematics to your fleet, Powerfleet has decades of experience with a broad portfolio of solutions.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and learn more.

The FMCSA reckons that there are more than 5,000 fatalities and over 100,000 injuries due to truck accidents each year. In addition to the human toll, the average large truck crash costs $91,000 per accident, with fatalities costing around $3.6 million. As a result, fleets must invest in high-quality fleet safety programs to minimize risk.

Most fleets appreciate the importance of hiring safe drivers, developing a robust training program, and adequately maintaining trucks and vehicles. However, the best fleet safety programs go beyond the basics to create a safety culture driven by data and supported with positive reinforcement that keeps everyone happy and motivated.

Let’s look at the three components of a great fleet safety program that go beyond the basics and how you can implement them in your fleet.

The best fleet safety programs create a culture of safety driven by data and supported by positive reinforcement. Click To Tweet

#1. Collect Data on Unsafe Driving Habits

Telematics arms you with the knowledge you need to make data-driven decisions. Tracking unsafe driving habits is one of the most important ways telematics technology improves fleet safety. Using telematics, fleet speeds, acceleration rates, and hard brakes can be monitored. The data can also be used to benchmark driver performance and assign drivers to safety training. For example, you can quickly calculate the number of on-the-road safety incidents over the past month and compare that figure to prior months. These trends can help you determine if overall fleet safety is improving or deteriorating, enabling you to take corrective action.

There are many types of data points to collect:

• Excessive speeding
• Harsh braking
• Sudden acceleration
• Abrupt cornering
• Excessive idling
• Lane departure warnings
• Collision warnings

The use of telematics also allows you to provide drivers with feedback and coaching in an unbiased and fair manner, so they are aware of what is expected of them and can maximize their performance.

PowerFleet aggregates telematics data, computes relevant KPIs and displays actionable information in a convenient web-based dashboard. In addition, PowerFleet Vista leverages live video feeds and artificial intelligence to provide real-time feedback to drivers, as well as capture and record conditions on the road or when parked if there’s a sudden jolt.

Telematics can also help fleets achieve better operational efficiency through real-time locations, environmental sensors, and other key data points, as well as better safety and compliance through door monitors and integrated ELD systems. As a result, most fleets can improve safety while simultaneously achieving a quick return on investment.

#2. Maintenance

Proper vehicle maintenance is key to safe operation. Monitoring vehicle engine data and maintaining truck engines and trailer parts proactive will minimize the chance of an on-the-road breakdown. A driver spot check should also be a requirement before driving. With modern ELD systems, truckers can not only ensure they’re not in violation of Hours-of-Service guidelines, but they can also ensure proper maintenance and avoid equipment malfunctions. PowerFleet’s ELD, for example, reduces compliance issues for drivers and continuously tracks engine hours. With its maintenance modules, it also plans ahead for PMs and prevents safety incidents on the road. The solution’s Vehicle Inspection Reports enhance fleet safety and prevent and help predict maintenance issues instead of reacting to them. Your maintenance team can even clear and save detailed messages as they clear items.

#3. Trip Optimization

One of the causes of accidents among major motor carriers is driver fatigue. An accident is more likely to happen if your drivers spend a lot of time on the road. Safe driving relies on efficient routing. Routing tools help drivers prepare for safety success passively, whereas scorecards and other reporting tools help drivers improve.

A truck movement analysis is essential, especially for repeat routes and continued deliveries, in order to improve efficiency. In order to avoid accidents-prone areas, alternative routes should be planned, existing routes should be streamlined to create a more direct route, and certain drivers and vehicles need to be prioritized along challenging or confusing routes.

In order to ensure your company is achieving the most efficient routes, you need telematics.

The Bottom Line

Effective fleet safety programs minimize the risk of accidents and fines while simultaneously maximizing performance. In addition to the proper hiring and training practices, you should seek to create a data-driven culture of safety that’s supported with positive reinforcement to keep everyone happy and motivated to improve over time.

If you’re looking to incorporate telematics data into your fleet, PowerFleet provides a broad range of solutions. Browse our products or contact us to learn more.